The Scientific American Boy eBook

CHAPTER VI.

OFF TO THE ISLAND.

The morning of July 2d dawned bright and clear, but
long before daybreak the members of the S. S. I. E.
E. of W. C. I. were astir. The jolly red sun
peeping over the eastern hills witnessed an unaccustomed
sight. Six greatly excited boys were running
back and forth from the barn to the canal, bearing
all manner of mysterious bundles, which were carefully
deposited in a freshly painted scow. Yes, all
six of us were there.

A Unique Alarm Clock.

We hadn’t expected to see Reddy Schreiner at
such an early hour, for he was always a sleepyhead,
and no alarm clock would ever wake him. But this
was an exceptional day, and, besides, Reddy was quite
an original chap. He had taken one of the borrowed
roosters into his room the night before, and when,
early in the morning, Mr. Chanticleer had mounted
the footboard of the bed, flapped his wings and given
vent to his opinion of a boy who persisted in sleeping
at that late hour of the day, the noise was too much
for even Reddy’s drowsy sensibilities.

[Illustration: Fig. 65. Off to the Island.]

[Illustration: The Ledge below the Goblins’
Platform.]

[Illustration: The Camp at Willow Clump Island.]

The Trip to the Island.

Our scow was not large enough to carry all the things
we had to take with us, but as Mr. Schreiner was going
to take Uncle Ed up in his wagon, we left the rest
of our luggage for him to bring along. We boys
walked the eleven miles up the canal to Lumberville,
towing the barge. It was a tiresome task; but
we divided the work into two-mile shifts, two boys
towing at a time and then each taking a mile ride as
steersman in the boat. It was about noon when
we arrived at Lumberville, and then we had to unload
our boat before we could haul it out of the canal and
down to the river. The river on the Jersey side
of the island was so shallow that we waded across,
pushing the boat ahead of us. The current was
too swift to permit of rowing, and it was rather hard
for us to keep our footing. But we managed to
reach our destination finally without any mishap.
The island was thickly wooded, except for a small
clearing where we landed. The first thing we
did was to unpack our eatables, and Jack, the cook,
soon had an appetizing pan of bacon and eggs sputtering
on the kerosene stove.

[Illustration: Fig. 66. Dragging the Scow
over to the Island.]

Preliminary Exploration.

As no better position offered at the time we pitched
our tent in the clearing, pending a thorough search
for a more suitable place elsewhere. Around the
tent we dug a trench about a foot deep to prevent water
from entering our quarters when it rained. It
was about time for Uncle Ed and Mr. Schreiner to appear
with the rest of our luggage, so we did not have time
to do much exploring, but sauntered southward along
the shore, always on the lookout for their arrival.
About a quarter of a mile from the tent we came across
the wreck of an old bridge, which had been washed down
by some freshet. This was a great find, and served
us many purposes, as will appear later.